Thursday, November 4, 2010

Webber: Vettel is Red Bull's favourite 80hat

Mark Webber has suggested that Red Bull Racing is 'emotionally behind' his team-mate Sebastian Vettel going into the final two races of the world championship battle.
The issue of team favouritism has been a hot topic at Red Bull this year, following Webber and Vettel's collision as they fought for the lead of the Turkish Grand Prix, and the incident where Webber had to hand his upgraded front wing to Vettel before Silverstone qualifying after the German's example failed.
Webber and Vettel arrive in Brazil 11 and 25 points behind championship leader Fernando Alonso, but with the team adamant that it will continue to support both men's title bids.
When asked if he felt he was getting equal support, Webber replied: "technically everything's been very, very good" but when pressed on whether he felt he had the same level of emotional backing as Vettel, he said: "It's obvious isn't it?"
Webber added: "Of course when young, new chargers come onto the block, that's where the emotion is. That's the way it is.
"Which is absolutely fine, because I've had a great opportunity and a great car to go and do some great things this year, and I have done that.
"I've got favourites in life. I've got people I like to be with. That's how it is. It's human nature."
While the team has remained adamant that it will not impose any form of team orders, Webber said there was the potential to let both championships slip away if Red Bull did not handle the final races correctly.
"I'm a driver, and I think that of course you increase your risk of that happening if you race each other and potentially take each other out, or race as hard as you want all the way to the end then you might not get certain championships," he said.
"But it's certainly not my decision and what I think is really all that important to how we will probably go about it. You'd need to ask the people who run the team."
He was not sure how he would feel about supporting Vettel if the points positions were reversed.
"It's a tough question and a tough situation to know how you would do things," Webber admitted.
"There's a lot of really good people at this team and there's no getting away from the fact that we would love to win some championships this year.
"We're at different parts of our career as well, so it's not as easy as some might imagine. I'd need to think a lot further about that.
"For different reasons here and there, obviously Seb's never led the championship this year and I have, so whatever happens in all the races we've had, we've now got two races to go and that's what the scoreboard says.
"Whatever the best way we go about handling trying to win the championship, we'll see on the Monday after Abu Dhabi if it was the right way."
He insisted he could still be satisfied with his season even if he ultimately missed out on the title despite leading the standings for much of the year.
"If you had asked me at the start of the year, I have a chance of winning the championship, I've won four races, I've had nine podiums, it's been a sensational year for me," Webber said.
"I can still put the icing on the cake and I'd love to be able to do that. If we don't, then the sun still comes up on Monday morning."
Webber also dismissed Gerhard Berger's allegation that he had allowed his car to run back across the road during his Korean Grand Prix crash because he had been keen to try and eliminate one of his title rivals. The spinning Red Bull collected Nico Rosberg's Mercedes in the incident.
"I know Gerhard's had some pretty nasty accidents in his time and so have I - Le Mans, Valencia..." said Webber.
"I'd never put myself or anyone else in any more danger than I need to. I've lost control of the car and [Berger's saying] all of a sudden I've regained control of the car and try and take people out... I'm a genius, aren't I?"
When asked if he was surprised that Berger's comments came on the Red Bull-owned Servus TV station, Webber replied: "absolutely".